License to Laugh? Mischief Theatre’s Spies Go Rogue

Noel Coward Theatre | Runs Until 5th September

As the house lights dim, and the James Bond-esque music starts, you know you’re in for a wild ride. A timid baker, a would-be Bond, and rival CIA, MI6, and KGB agents collide in a riot of mistaken identity and slapstick chases. It’s fast, loud, and daft – and it knows exactly what it is.

I was quite worried going into it because one of the producers on BBC Radio Kent had been to see it and loved it, saying it was one of the funniest things she had seen. On the other hand, some friends of mine have been to see it, and I had a message from them saying, “Do not under any circumstances go and see it,” and they had left at the interval! So, two polar opposites!

I must also confess that I’m one of the very few people who didn’t really enjoy The Play That Goes Wrong. I do have a theory, though, that if you are actually in the business, you don’t find it funny. This view is also shared by the actress friend who accompanied me! I just sat there thinking, “Well, they would have stopped it by now!”

Mischief Theatre sprang from six friends at RADA in 2008 and is incredibly successful, with two strands of work, the Goes Wrong strand, we’ve got A Christmas Carol That Goes Wrong coming up, and there has been Peter Pan That Goes Wrong, among others. Here we have the second entry in the Comedy About strand, the first being A Comedy About A Bank Robbery, which I unfortunately didn’t manage to get to see. All very popular and successful both in the UK on tour and in New York! Each show shares a taste for pantomime-style chaos, tight comic craft, and incredibly precise physicality.

Very specifically, the show is set in London in 1961, which is great and sets up the era and style of what ensues. It is more Airplane than Mission Impossible. The story kicks off with a simple mix-up in a hotel lobby. Our baker hero is swept up with his girlfriend. An eager actor thinks he’s auditioning for 007 (his only rival an unknown Sean Connery!). Soon, secret files, hidden corridors, and pratfalls fill the stage. The split-level set of four rooms impresses in Act One with running from room to room and, in one instance, through the ceiling! It then expands in Act Two into a feast of moving doors, a laundrette, and an open lift shaft! You can certainly see where the money has gone, though it grows almost too busy.

The gags land hard, some land too often, I could have done with a few fewer red wine jokes, and a crude running joke about incest is at odds with the overall tone. However, at its best, the show is pure silliness, honed by people who know their way around a gag. And it also ends with a brief moment of real pathos.

This new spy caper was written by Henry Lewis and Henry Shields and directed by Matt DiCarlo. Cast members are all Mischief alumni and boast TV and stage credits from West End runs. They tackle the physical stunts, falls, spins, and a shimmy up a lift shaft, with expert flair. For fans of slapstick and screwball comedy, it hits the spot.

In the hands of Mischief’s team, this show revives the concept of the old-fashioned star vehicle, a light comedy built as a showcase for a star, in this case, the Mischief Company, giving them an opportunity to show their skills. It doesn’t aim for meaning or significance, it simply asks you to laugh.

So, if you fancy an evening of relentless gags, collapsing ceilings, and the chance to see spies get their just deserts – mission accomplished!

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